Awhile ago I came across this blog post from Byrdseed.com. This is a website dedicated to differentiating instruction for high-level learners. However, I find many of the things Ian Byrd, the blog's founder, blogs about and shares are able to be applied at a variety of levels. The post I want to discuss today is called Tickling Students' Curiosity. In this post, Byrd offers suggestions for how to capitalize on the curiosity of your students. I'll summarize his suggestions here:

1. The Book - Create a book of unanswered questions with your students. This can take the form of a simple binder or it can be a bulletin board in your classroom. This is what the third grade team at Harvey Dunn has created. Here students are encouraged and given time to write questions that may come up (whether related to the content or completely off topic) and hold onto them for later investigation.

2. Scaffold -

Monday - Demonstrate curiosity to your kids. Show a cool video (a curiosity tickler) and have a discussion after that generates questions. Don't answer the questions, but allow students time to let them marinate. Maybe some will go home and seek answers on their own.

Tuesday - Bring the class together and see if anyone answered any of their questions. Perhaps model some of the questions you answered, recording answers in the book. Then lead into another curiosity tickler. Maybe this time you'll show a cool to get kids questioning.

Wednesday - Repeat the process.

Thursday - Repeat the process again, but this time offer it to students to bring in curiosity ticklers they find in their world to share with the class.

Friday - Show one of the student selected curiosity ticklers to the class.

3. Curriculum Connections- Once students understand how exciting it can be to ask questions, start connecting to your curriculum. What lingering questions do students still have about a topic you've been studying? Put these questions in the book as well as any answers that come up.

4. Using the Book- Return to the book when you can and remind students of questions that have been answered, but also of questions that are still waiting for answers. Encourage them to keep pondering.

There are no doubt countless ways to incorporate these ideas into your day. Perhaps the questioning happens as a wrap-up to a lesson, or even as an opener. Perhaps it takes place during morning meeting. Maybe it becomes a closing circle activity before the day is out. Giving students opportunities to ask questions, demonstrate inquisitiveness, and excitedly seek those answers deepens their critical thinking and problem solving skills. In order to prepare our students to be successful in the 21st century, we need to support their curiosity and the search for answers. How can you capitalize on your students' curiosity?

On a related note...

Google Search by Reading Level - When students use Google to search for answers to their questions or research topics, they can use the simple steps on this handout to filter their Google searches by reading level. Just follow the steps in this document.